Collecting Peace: Landscaping

The 7th installment

This is the 7th installment in a series about collecting peace. I started this series at the beginning of the new year and will finish it up around Easter. As I stop to notice and record the ways I experience peace I hope you will find gentleness and encouragement through my writing.

It's the first Spring in a while with no peonies popping up in our yard.

The previous owners of our last two homes left a little magic in the form of flowers.

Wisteria vines twisting around three small trees by our fence created cascades of purple petals like chandeliers or Chinese lanterns hanging from bare branches this time of year.

And little bouncy-ball size buds began to form. All Spring I anticipated the blooming; a poof of plush pastel whimsy! Hello fluffy peonies.

I took photos like I might take down notes in a class or during a good sermon- with an eagerness to catch all and remember it too.

Maybe that seems silly to you, and there is something completely different that makes your heart sing? The previously planted flowers made me feel God's understanding, gentleness and love. It made me feel His hope and not despair.

We hold onto words of hope when we go through hard times. We hold on to images of beauty when things are bleak. And when breakthrough happens or beauty blooms we give thanks.

Right now, I am reminding myself to be patient. There are no previously planted flowers at the new-to-us old home we just moved into. In fact, we are starting out with the grass. Growing grass and getting rid of weeds. Jeff threw down grass seed last week. This next weekend he is working on termites (and taxes too, ugh)! To get rid of the termites he has to dig a small trench around the whole house to pour in the chemicals. My flowerbeds near the house will have to wait.

And so though things are not where I would like them to be yet, here is what I am thankful for;

grass seed

no more termites

progress

a hopeful vision

our past flowerbeds and lovely landscaped yards

As I jogged around my neighborhood this week and watched the saplings twirl and spin in the wind, I also stopped to take notice of trees we might like to plant one day in our yard. I have also noticed yards with great grass and reminded myself that we can get there one day too. I have embraced this gentle truth;

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.